I'd venture to guess that only the top 1% in Haiti have it better than anyone in the US. But that is just speculation.

Americans help cause that is what they do. Instead you could be buying American and helping others. Besides if you buy American you would have to believe that the big greedy corporation would pump that money back in to the company to help the little guys, but that is very similar to your voodoo economics you love to rail against so it surely don't work. Top down NEVER works, right?. If you want to help an American just hand them $50 is what you should say. Handouts > Trickle down, otherwise you got lots of explaining to do.

Besides forget all of that, what did you do that was so great to deserve to live in this country? Military service? if so thanks. Your take is less stupid now. Me? I was lucky, just ended up here by chance. I sure am glad, but I am not arrogant enough to think that I deserve the life of an American and anyone else so lucky can just eff off. I live in America where I can make myself better, where people can come from nothing. The only way you do it in Haiti is by slitting throats and selling drugs OR somehow coming to America

Keep of my brother, shheesssh.

Last edited by Ziner on Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ziner wrote:and before you start to go in to some ridiculous explanation they are the same thing. I am not going in to it but both situations are shifts in the demand curve each for different reasons, but similar results.

Besides forget all of that, what did you do that was so great to deserve to live in this country? Military service? if so thanks. Your take is less stupid now. Me? I was lucky, just ended up here by chance. I sure am glad, but I am not arrogant enough to think that I deserve the life of an American and anyone else so lucky can just eff off. I live in America where I can make myself better, where people can come from nothing. The only way you do it in Haiti is by slitting throats and selling drugs OR somehow coming to America

Keep of my brother, shheesssh.

This is actually a big sticking point I have when talking about the opportunity this country offers compared to so much of the rest of the world.

Not one person on Earth controls where they are born, we are all in the same boat as far as having initial control over the hand we are dealt.

I know JB agrees with me on that.

Not sure where you were going with that Ziner, but just sayin.

Criminals in this town used to believe in things...honor, respect."I heard your dog is sick, so bought you this shovel"

Some day that shit is going to happen to us in NEO, earthquake, tornado etc, you got months of food stocked up, thousands in cash in the house and gasoline at your finger tips....didn't thinks so.

Just as long as the gubmint doesn't ship your yankee asses down here to Florida after the tragedy. We're knee deep in Haitians already. I wonder if our wonderful government will allow special immigration status to the Chileans as well? You know things are pretty bad here when the illegal Mexicans are bitching about being displaced by cheap labor.

Ziner wrote:and before you start to go in to some ridiculous explanation they are the same thing. I am not going in to it but both situations are shifts in the demand curve each for different reasons, but similar results.

Besides forget all of that, what did you do that was so great to deserve to live in this country? Military service? if so thanks. Your take is less stupid now. Me? I was lucky, just ended up here by chance. I sure am glad, but I am not arrogant enough to think that I deserve the life of an American and anyone else so lucky can just eff off. I live in America where I can make myself better, where people can come from nothing. The only way you do it in Haiti is by slitting throats and selling drugs OR somehow coming to America

Keep of my brother, shheesssh.

This is actually a big sticking point I have when talking about the opportunity this country offers compared to so much of the rest of the world.

Not one person on Earth controls where they are born, we are all in the same boat as far as having initial control over the hand we are dealt.

I know JB agrees with me on that.

Not sure where you were going with that Ziner, but just sayin.

Pretty much exactly where you went with it. What did I do so special to deserve the great things of this country besides be born here? Its because of this I feel like I have a responsibility if I can to help people who were not born with those same advantages. Americans of all walks of life with all sorts of things stacked against them have made it, you can do that in America with hard work. These people in Haiti, if they bust their ass where are they going to get? Being able to buy food instead of stealing food? A small shitty tin shack instead of a cardboard box in the park?

I know that texting "Haiti" on your Iphone will make you feel better and that's really the most important thing with most liberals who are holding so much guilt.

Haiti is completely barren due to deforestation, 70 percent of the people are unemployed, and half cannot read or write. It is the Somalia of the Caribbean with warlords and gangs being the only government in most areas. If you really want to help, go there and plant some trees, adopt some kids, and educate the people. Throwing money at this will not fix the problems there since very little of it will get to those that need it the most.

There is truth in the old saying that if you give a man a fish he can eat for a day but teach him how to fish and he can eat for a lifetime.

I speak from experience, since I am a legal resident of Brazil and Brazil faces similar challenges.

municipalmutt wrote:I know that texting "Haiti" on your Iphone will make you feel better and that's really the most important thing with most liberals who are holding so much guilt.

Haiti is completely barren due to deforestation, 70 percent of the people are unemployed, and half cannot read or write. It is the Somalia of the Caribbean with warlords and gangs being the only government in most areas. If you really want to help, go there and plant some trees, adopt some kids, and educate the people. Throwing money at this will not fix the problems there since very little of it will get to those that need it the most.

There is truth in the old saying that if you give a man a fish he can eat for a day but teach him how to fish and he can eat for a lifetime.

I speak from experience, since I am a legal resident of Brazil and Brazil faces similar challenges.

W/all due respect, there are organizations in Haiti that have earned people's trust and are applying the donations they get directly to the people in their care. STO's main man belongs to one of those organizations. It happens to be a ministry that was set up on the island well before the earthquake.

I'm not a religious dude, but the shit they did and are doing down there in the wake of the quake is inspiring.

It's like anything else: you need to know where your cash is headed. There are a lot of pits for it to fall. But if you look hard enough you can get it where it does the most amount of good.

And that's not just Haiti. It's here, Haiti, Chile and everywhere else. Texting 'Haiti' i the easy, lazy and probably least efficient way of doing anything. But it's so very American, no?

As to the point of the thread and what JB said, pfft. If one is going to have an "I'm my brother's keeper" perspective on life then it is rather asinine to suggest spending $50 at the local hardware store on made in the U.S.A. will have a greater impact than sending $20 to help out the likes of Haitians and Chileans (in the grand scheme of things). That $50 you spend at John Madden's hardware (Ace is the place) will hardly make a dent in that guys life, the $20 for victims of such uncontrollable tragedy goes a long long way.

Not saying one should or shouldn't, depends on your own situation but again this requires context.

Criminals in this town used to believe in things...honor, respect."I heard your dog is sick, so bought you this shovel"

As to the point of the thread and what JB said, pfft. If one is going to have an "I'm my brother's keeper" perspective on life then it is rather asinine to suggest spending $50 at the local hardware store on made in the U.S.A. will have a greater impact than sending $20 to help out the likes of Haitians and Chileans (in the grand scheme of things). That $50 you spend at John Madden's hardware (Ace is the place) will hardly make a dent in that guys life, the $20 for victims of such uncontrollable tragedy goes a long long way.

Not saying one should or shouldn't, depends on your own situation but again this requires context.

If it gets there.

I'm down with the thought that 'texting Haiti' as someone put above, may be a way to pad the pockets of profiteers before anything gets there.

But if you 'buy direct' through an organization you trust and that you know is using nearly every dime of that money to put toward the cause then whomever's telling me how to spend the money I make can blow me.

Check your own tags, labels, beer cartons, liquor bottles, hookahs, driveways, electronics, games and fruit bowls and tell me how much money you put into foreign hands. Then we can talk.

As to the point of the thread and what JB said, pfft. If one is going to have an "I'm my brother's keeper" perspective on life then it is rather asinine to suggest spending $50 at the local hardware store on made in the U.S.A. will have a greater impact than sending $20 to help out the likes of Haitians and Chileans (in the grand scheme of things). That $50 you spend at John Madden's hardware (Ace is the place) will hardly make a dent in that guys life, the $20 for victims of such uncontrollable tragedy goes a long long way.

Not saying one should or shouldn't, depends on your own situation but again this requires context.

If it gets there.

I'm down with the thought that 'texting Haiti' as someone put above, may be a way to pad the pockets of profiteers before anything gets there.

But if you 'buy direct' through an organization you trust and that you know is using nearly every dime of that money to put toward the cause then whomever's telling me how to spend the money I make can blow me.

Check your own tags, labels, beer cartons, liquor bottles, hookahs, driveways, electronics, games and fruit bowls and tell me how much money you put into foreign hands. Then we can talk.

The point is the hardware store owner profits what $5-10 tops, it allows him to reorder a paint brush or two. The $20 for the earthquake victims keeps them alive for 3 more days or a month. The impact of the money relative to the lives of each example is 180 degrees apart.

Criminals in this town used to believe in things...honor, respect."I heard your dog is sick, so bought you this shovel"

I'm down with the thought that 'texting Haiti' as someone put above, may be a way to pad the pockets of profiteers before anything gets there.

But if you 'buy direct' through an organization you trust and that you know is using nearly every dime of that money to put toward the cause then whomever's telling me how to spend the money I make can blow me.

Check your own tags, labels, beer cartons, liquor bottles, hookahs, driveways, electronics, games and fruit bowls and tell me how much money you put into foreign hands. Then we can talk.

The point is the hardware store owner profits what $5-10 tops, it allows him to reorder a paint brush or two. The $20 for the earthquake victims keeps them alive for 3 more days or a month. The impact of the money relative to the lives of each example is 180 degrees apart.

We agree Donny. Think JB will be ok if when I need shit from a hardware store I buy American product at the mom & pop hardware store just down the road from Walmart and DIY? And if there's an earthquake in Haiti or anywhere else and I want to send a few bucks through someone I trust rather than downloading a couple more album's worth of music to the iPod is he okay with me doing that too?

This would deserves its own thread for a complete discussion but another point is the buying made in U.S.A. v buying made in China stuff gets blown way out of proportion many times (not all the time).

Just b/c something is made in China doesn't mean when you purchase it that you are NOT supporting Americans. Somebody has to unload it off the boat/plane, reload it onto something else, unload it again, reload it again at UPS/FedEx, drive it to the market place, unload it off the truck, put it in the corner, unpack it, count to make sure it is all there (per packing list), make a claim for that which isn't there, stock what it there on the shelves, dispose of the left over cardboard into the proper recycle bin, bail up that cardboard, load it onto the cardboard recycling truck, etc etc etc.

I think you get my point.

Criminals in this town used to believe in things...honor, respect."I heard your dog is sick, so bought you this shovel"

FUDU wrote:This would deserves its own thread for a complete discussion but another point is the buying made in U.S.A. v buying made in China stuff gets blown way out of proportion many times (not all the time).

Just b/c something is made in China doesn't mean when you purchase it that you are NOT supporting Americans. Somebody has to unload it off the boat/plane, reload it onto something else, unload it again, reload it again at UPS/FedEx, drive it to the market place, unload it off the truck, put it in the corner, unpack it, count to make sure it is all there (per packing list), make a claim for that which isn't there, stock what it there on the shelves, dispose of the left over cardboard into the proper recycle bin, bail up that cardboard, load it onto the cardboard recycling truck, etc etc etc.

I think you get my point.

So add material handler to chicken and potato chip vendors and that replaces all the engineers, foremen, and factory workers we lost from manufacturing here. Woo fucking hooo.